Saturday, July 26, 2008

Still on the planet

I'm still here. I'm in one of the many area that flooded this spring. Other activities and people need my attention. I'm still making art, and still reading any comments posted. Go ahead and ask any questions about any of my projects.

Project Basement is also stalled. But I can show photos of my church basement...

Christmas 2003 - my church basement, called Fellowship Hall. Serving windows to the kitchen. Serving table that is actually a sewing / cutting table. IN door is propped open. Entry to the kitchen is on the far left.

The flood crested on a Friday in June - this was taken by a church member on the following Tuesday, the first day that property owners were allowed back into this neighborhood to inspect properties.

The reflection under the windows shows that the waters are still receding. Water escaped through the boiler room drain and down five sinks and two toilets in the basement. But once the water was lower than the toilets, the boiler room drain alone had to remove the rest of the waters.

The water went to 11' 11" from the basement floor, and around 7' from ground level. This is not a broken pipe kind of flooding. This was fast moving waters, stirring up everything. It was polluted with gasoline and oil, sheep waste, Dumpster(TM) debris, fertilizers. It ate the varnish off of the wood finishes. I'm told that at a local cultural museum, it at the paint off the lower half of a portrait, down to blank white canvas, but the upper half looks fine.

The acoustic ceiling tiles disintegrated into blobs of ick, but the frame remained intact.

IN and OUT doors are closed. Drinking fountain has been forced from its usual position.

The wallpaper has an eerie - cool texture. The wallpaper wrinkled, then the silt and slime settled on the ridges as the water slowly receded, creating highlights that resemble shadows. Fascinating, once one is detached from the emotions of loss and of memory.

Slightly different photo angle, same serving window wall. Gone is the wallpaper, the drywall, the sinks, the cabinets, the phone, the dishes and silverware, the refrigerators. No more ceiling tiles or frame, ceiling lights or wires. It is a very solid building, built in 1915, and has a beauty of brick and wood to it. It was well designed for use of space and well constructed.

We did the demolition with over 200 volunteers representing over 25 groups for more than 1600 work-hours. Then we hired out the dehumidifying and the biocide, so also gone by this stage should be the excess moisture, the mold the spores, and the bacteria.

Thanks, Rusty. It has certainly shifted my focus and my energies. But I was ready to make ATCs and commemorate this event. There are more devastatingly beautiful photos, but I'm committed to using on;y my photos and photos with permissions to use. So I had to focus on me and my situation.

We're all hoping to get "back to normal," but it will take great time.

Our cities are being counseled by people from Grand Forks, ND, which flooded in 1999 and just now they are feeling really Back.